Among those sentenced were lawyers, academics and members of prominent families in the UAE. Member of UAE's ruling family Sheikh Sultan bin Kayed Al-Qassimi and prominent human rights lawyer Mohammed al-Roken were two of the 56 present when convicted.

Many of the 94 are members of the al-Islah group, which the UAE says has links to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Islah has said, however, that it share some of the Egyptian group's ideologies, but does not have any organizational links to it.